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Thirteen weeks after losing his bid for the party nomination in a bruising primary battle, Steve Poizner has for the first time voiced support of former rival Meg Whitman's gubernatorial bid. Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, issued a statement through the California Republican Party endorsing all the GOP candidates for statewide office, saying the ticket "offers a clear contrast to candidates nominated by the Democratic Party." But the 224-word statement reads far from a wholehearted endorsement of his primary foe. Poizner only mentions Whitman once by name and does not single out the gubernatorial hopeful's accomplishments or credentials, instead saying...

Former EBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman and Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina held early leads in the Republican races for governor and U.S. Senate respectively. With about 7% of the vote counted from around the state, Whitman is earning 65.6% of the Republican vote, compared to 25.3% for Steve Poizner. Fiorina has 59% of the early vote, leading former Congressman Tom Campbell and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), who have 22% and 16% of the vote respectively. In other races, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, a Republican, and San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris, a Democrat, are leading...

Meg Whitman, the billionaire former eBay chief executive who poured tens of millions of her own fortune into her first-time bid for political office, easily won the Republican primary for California governor Tuesday, advancing to face a Democratic icon, former two-term Gov. Jerry Brown.

While Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, took the stage late into a pro-Israel rally held in front of the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles this afternoon, the candidate for the U.S. Senate made sure to give a louder and more fiery speech than those of the nearly two dozen people who came before him. Almost all of the speakers, which included Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., defended the actions of Israeli soldeirs who last week boarded a Turkish ship trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. The soldiers killed nine people aboard...

It’s hard to image that the state that gave us Governor Ronald Reagan could put up two candidates as thoroughly “RINO” as those now vying for the Golden State’s governor’s chair. But alas, that was a different California. On the hand one we have Meg Whitman, a woman so concerned with the political well-being of her state and country that she didn’t bother to vote for 20 years. She’s endorsed and contributed to Barbara Boxer, and gave a whopping $20,000 to Democrat Steve Westley’s statewide bids, and became a “huge fan” of former Obama Administration “Green Jobs Czar” and avowed...

Steve Poizner may be trailing rival Meg Whitman by 26 points in today's Field Poll, but he's got "America's Toughest Sheriff" on his side. Poizner, who has made cracking down on illegal immigration a central focus of his campaign, announced today the endorsement of an Arizona law enforcement official championing Arizona's new immigration law: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio who bills himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff," called Poizner a "staunch supporter of Arizona's illegal immigration law."

I need local input from California!

Poizner: Tax Dollars for Illegals’ Abortions Posted on June 3 2010 by Eric Hogue From Michael Rothfeld of the LA Times in Sacramento tonight. Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner has said his experience in Sacramento as insurance commissioner has “crystallized” his thinking as a conservative. A document obtained by The Times shows that Poizner, who in past campaigns described himself as a moderate, has apparently shifted far more than previously reported. It shows that he took generally liberal positions on matters unrelated to the world of insurance, from support of needle exchanges to a suggestion that he backed reparations to...

California is the nation's shameful example of what happens when Democrats influenced by big-government labor rule the statehouse for forty years. With 12.5% unemployment (up from 4.5% a mere three years ago) and a "recognized" budget deficit of $21 billion, California has just found that out it is in much, much more financial trouble than anyone, especially a Democrat, really wants to admit. California's governor Schwarzenegger commissioned a study by Stanford University, which has found that California's three public employee pension funds (The California Public Employees' Retirement System [CalPERS], California State Teachers' Retirement System [CalSTRS], and University of California...

In poll after poll, California voters from both major parties have made it clear they see the recession, the state's budget mess and taxes as their top priorities this election year. On the airwaves, however, the Republican candidates for governor are talking about anything but that trio of issues. Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner instead are bashing each other over their past support of prominent Democrats and the wisdom of a federal amnesty for illegal immigrants, not a policy the governor controls. Given the tenor of the televised debate, it's no surprise voters such as Republican Herbert Johnson say they...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman continued her record-shattering spending streak this spring, burning through $33.8 million in about two months, according to a campaign finance statement filed Thursday. That amount brings the billionaire candidate's spending total to more than $80 million, with $68 million of it coming from her own personal wealth. The former chief executive officer of online auction firm eBay has said she's prepared to spend as much as $150 million of her own wealth on her campaign. Whitman had $3.8 million in cash on hand as of May 22. By comparison, Democratic candidate Jerry Brown had spent...

A new KPIX-TV CBS 5 poll of likely Republican primary voters finds that Carly Fiorina has shot to the top of the nomination race for U.S. Senate, and Meg Whitman has retaken a huge lead in the gubernatorial race, as well. But the latest poll, released Monday, shows Whitman recapturing the lead by 27 points with a 54%-27% advantage over Poizner -- a wild swing of 25 points in less than two weeks. The poll numbers for the Senate race show Fiorina with 46%, former Congressman Tom Campbell at 23%, and Chuck DeVore at 14%. This represents a 34-point net...

SACRAMENTO — Known for battling carbon emissions, Californians are dealing with an environmental degradation of another kind this spring: pollution of the airwaves. Wave after wave of high octane, negative political advertisements have crowded out any hope of thoughtful discourse in the Republican gubernatorial primary, the outgrowth of an unprecedented $100 million poured into a tightly contested campaign by two wealthy masters of the Silicon Valley universe: Meg Whitman, billionaire ex-chief executive of eBay, and multimillionaire Steve Poizner, the state's insurance commissioner. "The more money you have, the more poison you can buy," said Jack Pitney, a government professor at...

If Steve Poizner upsets Meg Whitmanin the GOP side of the June 8 governor's primary, he can thank Democrats. The California Democratic Party and major labor unions have joined Poizner in attacking Whitman. The CDP is spending $1.8 million on its anti-Whitman television ad and the California Labor Federation has deployed 25,000 volunteers to campaign against Whitman. CDP and big labor think expected Democratic nominee Jerry Brown will have an easier time beating Poizner. Indeed, Brown leads Poizner 45 percent to 32 percent, while his lead over Whitman is a narrower 42 percent to 37 percent, according to the latest...

JUNE PRIMARY With the June primaries less than a month away, the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination has significantly tightened. Although Meg Whitman (38%) still leads Steve Poizner (29%) among Republican primary likely voters, there has been a stunning drop in her support since March. In January, Whitman led Poizner by 30 points (41% to 11%) and in March by 50 points (61% to 11%). Today, three in 10 voters are undecided, up 6 points since March, but far lower than in January (44%). Republican primary likely voters include the 12 percent of independent (decline-to-state) voters who say they...

MAY 20, 2010 Whitman's Lead Narrows in California Race BY STU WOO Meg Whitman appears to have lost much of her wide lead in the race to be the Republican contender in California's November gubernatorial election. Two months ago, Ms. Whitman looked to be cruising toward the Republican nomination. Polls showed the former eBay Inc. chief executive leading her main opponent, state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner, by 50 percentage points. With three weeks to go before the June 8 primary, Mr. Poizner is pulling off an unexpected rally. A survey to be released Thursday shows Ms. Whitman's advantage dwindling to...

The past month has not been kind to Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. The first hit came when her rival Steve Poizner and unions went after her ties to the investment firm Goldman Sachs just as federal investigators launched a criminal probe into the company. Republicans around the country then started rallying around a controversial Arizona law targeting illegal immigrants at the same time Poizner claimed the tough-on-immigration mantle in the race. The toll the attacks have taken on Whitman's once-unbeatable candidacy became clear Wednesday, when the first major public poll to be released since March showed that Whitman's 50-point...

Posted by her Republican opponent for nomination to the GOP ticket for the governorship of California, Steve Poizner, a political advertisement notes fellow Republican Meg Whitman's efforts to rid Ebay of gun sales and paintings billed as genuine works by famous artists. However, notes the ad, she created a separate division that sells only pornography. The ad also notes the millionaire's involvement in the disgraced Goldman Sachs trading company and concludes "Meg Whitman: Bad judgement. Wrong Values." Polls show that Whitman currently enjoys at 49 to 32 percent approval rating over Poizner. She recently garnered an endorsement from former Vice...

Months after clearing the Democratic race for governor of any serious opponents, Attorney General Jerry Brown held his first official public campaign event Monday - slamming Republican gubernatorial rivals Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner as "the apostles of darkness and ignorance" and calling their expensive barrage of mudslinging "intellectually embarrassing" to California voters. "They are so banal," Brown told about 200 students and others at a rally at UC Santa Barbara, referring to the millions of dollars that Whitman, the former eBay CEO and Poizner, the state Insurance Commissioner, have spent on attack ads in a primary battle that some...

Poizner's latest web video tries to tie Whitman to the porn industry (via Ebay)...